Aria Ashborn and the Order of the Phoenix (A Harry Potter fanfiction)

Chapter 15: The Eye of the Snake

(^^start at 4:00)

November came and went in the blink of an eye and Aria looked forward to leaving for Christmas to see her parents again. Everything was going wonderfully with the DA. She felt like she was learning a lot, and getting closer to Harry in the process. However, she wasn't just getting close to Harry. Since Aria and Luna were often partners, they had rekindled the friendship they had started in Aria's third year. Luna was a Ravenclaw, so Hermione often asked Aria to get Luna to spread the word about the DA meetings. (Apparently, many DA members were confusing their fake galleons with real ones and they had to stop using them in fear that they might get into the wrong hands.) At first, Aria thought Hermione had asked her to talk to Luna since they were friends but Aria soon realized it was because, like many others, Hermione thought Luna was strange. In truth, she was quite strange, but Aria enjoyed her company nonetheless.

With her robes wet from the winter snow, Aria hurried to the Room of Requirement for the last DA meeting before the holidays.

"Now, focus on a fixed point and try again." Harry was saying, as Aria lugged open the big doors. Everyone stopped what they were doing for a moment and turned their attention to her probably fearful that she would be Umbridge. When they realized she was not, everyone went back to what they were doing. By the looks of it, they were all off doing their own thing and practicing everything they had learned previously. Aria found Luna, who had been practicing with a dummy.

"Expelliarmus!" Neville pointed his wand at Harry, who he had yet to disarm.

"Stupefy!" Michael called, managing to Stun Ginny.

"Diminuendo!" Colin Creevey had managed to shrink the rolling dummy to the size of his knees. Harry wandered around the room, helping people as he went. Aria was thrown back from a Stun from Luna.

"Working hard is important," Harry said as he lifted Dennis Creevey's wand a little higher and continued on his rounds, "but there's something that matters even more: Believing in yourself. Think of it this way. Every great wizard in history has started out as nothing more than what we are now: students. If they can do it, why not us?"

"Stupefy!" Aria shouted at the dummy as it rolled, past her, having grown back to its regular size again.

"Expelliarmus!" Neville shouted at it, again to no avail. Soon, more students had gathered around the dummy so that they were all aiming at it one by one.

"Expelliarmus!" said Luna, causing the dummy to be thrown back towards Ginny.

"Reducto!" Ginny shouted at it as it came to her, and it a puff of blue and grey smoke, the knight dummy was reduced to a pile of ash. Ginny grinned as everyone, including Harry and Aria, looked at her in awe. Ginny had come a long way in the past couple of years. Aria noticed that she became more outgoing and popular with the boys. Not to mention, she replaced Harry as Seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

As time went on, everyone was back in their pairs, getting better and better with each spell. "Expelliarmus!","Stupify!", "Diminuendo!", "Reducto!", and "Levicorpus!" could be heard from around the room. Aria looked to see Harry, basking in the progress.

"Expelliarmus!" Neville shouted from next to Aria. She turned to see the wand fly from Padma Patil's hand. Everyone stopped what they were doing. Neville, who undoubtedly was their weakest link, had finally managed to disarm someone.

"Fantastic, Neville! Well done!" Harry said and everyone clapped for Neville as he stood there, agape from what he had just done. Harry, noticing that everyone's attention was focused, decided it was a good place to end the lesson. "So that's it for this lesson. Now, we' re not gonna be meeting again until after the holidays. So just keep practicing on your own as best you can. And well done, everyone. Great, great work." A moan could be heard from all the members as they were sad to be ending the lesson. The smile on Harry's face was contagious as everyone began to pack up.